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Education

That there, friends, is the new No Child Left Behind logo, seen here in public for the first time and to be publicly released on Monday. It was leaked on exclusive to Eduwonk by a high ranking administration official...But, don't be fooled, the logo is not the only change coming on NCLB. The Administration is dead serious about trying to get to an NCLB reauthorization deal. Do the odds look better? A lot of issues, but stay tuned.

But what's interesting about the reauthorization timetable question is that while former Bushie Mike Petrilli says he's sort of given up on NCLB, his solutions are surely not very appetizing for most of the hate-NCLB coalition*...national standards and more choice is where he's driving...that's worth noting because while the NCLB-foes approach this situation as a choice between NCLB or the pre-NCLB status quo, all the foot-dragging means they might look back before long on NCLB with some nostalgia from their place in a Petrillian dystopia...

Meanwhile, the Department of Education has also finished a year-long redesign of their Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) website. It's a variety of materials for teachers and the most popular federal K-12 resource on the web. It's relevant to NCLB because while the federal government can't get into curriculum, the feds can offer some help to teachers through strategies like this. And, it's a Clinton-era education initiative that hasn't gotten the axe!

*And yes, in case you live in an educave and haven’t heard, the NEA is embracing national standards via this new Dodd bill (pdf). But, don’t forget, Dodd also has an eviscerate NCLB’s accountability provisions bill floating around and there are a lot of folks who suddenly see national standards as a good way to kick the accountability can down the road a bit more… “sure, we’re for tough accountability, just as soon as we got some world class national standards in place…” Anyway, methinks that the standards bill Senator Kennedy is introducing is a more likely play and makes more sense right now, too...and unless this comes from the bottom up (pdf), it's going to bottom out.

This story and this one are sort of at odds with one another...to the extent money is key to a No Child deal, going to be tough to get to big numbers especially if, as Bruce Reed points out, Bush refuses to change course. And, to the extent that Bush wants a No Child reauth as a legacy item (the list of possible items is short...) that certainly will do little to whet Democratic appetites...

Dateline: Washington, D.C. The school system is chronically underperforming, the new mayor wants to take it over to get leverage to address the problems and the new head of the school board says...drum roll...fix the bathrooms*...Not an auspicious opening salvo in this battle...

*And in fairness some other stuff, but the flagship potty program hardly inspires confidence that the big structural issues are going to be tackled...

But, apparently (they're calling me for 411, sorry don't have any! Call him!) most EdWeekers are completely in the dark on this new development having just learned about it last night and this A.M. through the rumor mill (guess they're not regular This Week readers since it's been up there for a couple of days...meet your new colleague!) and some are more than a little pissed off...they’ve wanted a blog for a while, but this wasn’t what they had in mind at all…And, seems someone made a decision and Russo went public without looping in the actual worker bees who are wondering when the powers that be are going to clue them in...so they're pissed on content and form...stay tuned...PS--Job seekers, apparently competence with Ed Week's search engine is not a predicate for employment...no word on basic fact checking...so get those resumes in fast!

In his impressive speech (pdf) laying out his agenda, new NY governor Elliot Spitzer lays out the contours of a charter school cap raising deal (but no card check?!) as well as a reasonably solid education agenda. Dems returning to their roots as ed reformers? That’s good news. And, party unity to boot? The Kossacks love it, too...Stay tuned…it's too good to be true!

Mike Kirst, college professor, policy actor, policymaker, former state board of education member, and all around eduguru has started a blog: The College Puzzle. It's all about college completion, college success, and college prep. Well worth checking out. He's a go-to guy for advice and now you can go to his blog.

New York Times ed board weighed in on No Child twice over the holiday break...they diss the AFTies here and dump on everyone here. The second piece is must-read stuff. I'm not much on the NAEP option for moving toward national standards*, but the piece lays out the policy evolution and makes the point that No Child isn't just a George Bush thing, something Democrats will do well to remember...

*In fact, I think the national standards crowd is well on their way to shooting themselves in the foot. The states are quietly starting to work together and discuss collaboration and some heavy-handed push from Washington could squelch some promising bottom-up innovation...

New PPI paper on alternative authorizing arrangements (meaning non-traditional authorizers). Good overview and primer on what's happening there and good background for state policymakers. Disc: I'm a senior fellow at PPI and helped with this paper.